"I am the Samuel Pepys of my day. On every pub crawl everything is documented - from the beers in the pub to the decor," he said.

The Tairsters - Black Country dialect for tasters - initially planned to tour just 300 inns listed on the brewer's map, but turned their focus to the 12 Midlands counties in 1991, followed by a seven-year tour of Wales in 2006.